Would you rather go to a highly ranked college in a terrible location, or an average ranked college in a good location?
highly ranked college in terrible location, because the highly ranked college will use its endowment to make sure students never get bored and will offer tons more opportunities, all for free. Plus, as a college student, you spend most of your time on campus, and you can get away to anywhere during breaks. The terrific location will come with a 40-year trade off, ie., you enjoy that location for 4 years and you regret it when your job prospects aren’t as good…
Define what a terrible location is. Do you mean an unsafe place or a place with nothing to do?
I’d probably go with highly ranked college in terrible location. As long as that terrible location didn’t include absurdly high rents or huge amounts of crime I think I could deal with it.